Michael Woolworth (born in 1960) is a master printer of American origin, living and working in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He makes original editions with

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

ists. His

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or ...

specializes exclusively in printing techniques on hand presses: stone

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and multiples.

Biography

Michael Woolworth moved to Paris from the United States in 1979 and began working with Franck Bordas (grandson of the French master printer and lithographer

Fernand Mourlot Fernand Mourlot (; 5 April 1895 – 4 December 1988), son of Jules Mourlot, was the director of Mourlot Studios and founder of Editions Mourlot. Early life and career Fernand Mourlot was born on 5 April 1895 in Paris, France. He was the si ...

), who had just established his own lithography studio. He worked there for six years, working with artists as Gilles Aillaud, Jorge Camacho, Henri Cueco,

Erró Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements.

, Daniel Pommereulle, Jean Messagier, Hervé Di Rosa, François Boisrond,

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art. Bio ...

and

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a ...

. He opened his own Parisian atelier in 1985 with a project with the Surrealist Matta, bringing together 90 scenes inspired by Cervantes’

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

. He then undertook collaborations with Daniel Pommereulle and Jorge Camacho, and with several others, in particular the Spaniard José Maria Sicilia, with whom he began a long collaboration of more than 200 editions, among them, in 2004, a “rug” in lithography on 84 pieces of plaster measuring 3 m x 9 m, for an exhibition of contemporary art at the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. Since 2003, he has produced a large number of works with the American artist

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American artist whose œuvre extends over sixty years. Dine’s work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, l ...

, including more than one hundred prints, many in large format, as well as two lithography books on

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

. In 2011, Michael Woolworth was awarded the

Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and letters, Arts and Letters) is an Order (distinction), order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Ministry of Culture (France), Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the w ...

and was also given the title by the French state of 'Maître d'Art'.

Artists

Some of the artists who have worked with him are: * Arman *

Rémi Blanchard Figuration Libre ("Free Figuration") is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in the mo ...

* Stéphane Bordarier * José Manuel Broto * Jorge Camacho * Miguel Ángel Campano * Vincent Corpet * Gunter Damisch * Marc Desgrandchamps *

* Brecht Evens *

Günther Forg Günther, Guenther, Ginther, Gunther, and the variants Günter, Guenter, Guenther, Ginter, and Gunter, are Germanic names derived from ''Gunthere, Gunthari'', composed of '' *gunþiz'' "battle" (Old Norse ''gunnr'') and ''heri, hari'' "army". Gu ...

* Richard Gorman * Marie-Ange Guilleminot * Yuri Kuper * Bertrand Lavier * Frédérique Loutz * Frédérique Lucien * Pierre Mabille * William MacKendree * Matta * Jean-François Maurige *

Jean-Michel Othoniel Jean-Michel Othoniel (born 27 January 1964) is a French contemporary artist. He has worked in a variety of artistic media, including film, installation, photography and sculpture. In 2000 he designed a new entrance for the Palais Royal–Mus� ...

* A.R. Penck * Stéphane Pencréac'h *

Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa i Suñé (; born 23 August 1955) is a Spanish visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver. He is a versatile artist who has also created opera sets, video projections and acoustic installations. He worked with renowned Catalan t ...

* Jean-Pierre Pincemin *

Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 30 June 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving fro ...

* José Maria Sicilia * Peter Soriano * Djamel Tatah * Barthélemy Toguo * Claude Yvel * Otto Zitko

Collections

His publications have been acquired in many public and private collections, including: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Fonds National d’art contemporain

Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York Public Library
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
National Museum of Canberra, Australia
University of Leipzig Library

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

Le Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium
Kyoto Art Museum, Japan

Exhibitions

Michael Woolworth organizes and participates in events and exhibitions in his atelier, located just off the

Place de la Bastille The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison once stood, until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the ...

, as well as in galleries, museums, libraries and art fairs. Selected recent exhibitions: 2011
Musee d'Art Moderrne de la Ville de Paris, Marc Desgrandchamps.

Château de Chambord The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with cla ...

, Djamel Tatah.
Atelier Michael Woolworth, ‘ANDERS’, project with Frédérique Loutz, inspired by the fairy-tales by Hans Christian Andersen, with poems by Ernesto Castillo. 2010
Jim Dine exhibition at the Atelier Woolworth : book launching of Donkey in the Sea Before Us, published by the atelier with lithographs and original poems by Dine. 2009
Museum of Modern Art, Boras, Sweden, exhibition on ‘Jim Dine’s Pinocchio’.
‘La Force de l'Art 02’, Paris. Large installation by Frédérique Loutz at the Grand Palais, with the “Fèdre” project and a wallpaper produced by the atelier. 2008
‘5 / 5: Loud and Clear’, Librairie Saint-Hubert, Brussels - Vincent Corpet, Marc Desgrandchamps, Frédérique Loutz, Stéphane Pencréac’h, Djamel Tatah
Lithography by A.R. Penck created for the Musée d’art moderne de la ville, Paris. 2007
Vitrine by Djamel Tatah, Centre Georges Pompidou, in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Airs de Paris’.
‘L’Odyssée de Jim Dine’, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France. 2006
‘Jim Dine’s Pinocchio’, New York Public Library.
‘Peinture et poésie : le dialogue par le livre’, New York Public Library, with the artist’s book Impromptu by José Maria Sicilia, with poems by Jacques Dupin. 2005
‘Jim Dine. Plants and Tools’, Alan Cristea Gallery, London. 2004
‘Jim Dine’s Garden’, Pace Prints, New York.
Musée du Louvre, Paris. ‘Contrepoint’, installation by José Maria Sicilia.

References

* "L'Odysee" de Jim Dine, 2007 * "Thinking Print", MoMa, 1996 * "Print It, Damn It ! Atelier Michael Woolworth", 2005, Musee de Goya, Fuendetodos * http://www.michaelwoolworth.com * http://www.williammackendree.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolworth, Michael American artists 1960 births Living people